Osama bin Laden has been captured in a tribal region in Pakistan, the IRNA news agency quoted Iran's state radio as saying on Saturday.
  
The radio's external service, broadcast in Pushtu, said US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's trip to Pakistan on Thursday had been made in connection with the capture.

"The capture of the al-Qaida leader has been made sometime before, but (US President George W.) Bush is intending to announce it when the American presidential election is held," the radio said.

Contacted by IRNA, an Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) announcer at the Pushtu service confirmed the news, saying that they had got it from a "very reliable source" in Peshawar, Pakistan.

The Saudi-born dissident has been accused of masterminding the Sept.11 terror attacks on American landmarks in New York and Washington in 2001, which killed thousands of people.

The United States has offered US$25 million bounty on his head.

Pakistani FM denies report of bin Laden's capture

Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri Saturday denied a report that Osama bin Laden has been captured in Pakistan's tribal region.

Iran's state radio Pashto service reported that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has been captured in a tribal region in Pakistan.

"I am not in position to confirm or contradict that Osama bin Laden is captured," Kasuri told reporters in Islamabad.

"I will not confirm the report that Osama is being captured by the Pakistan Army during the operation in South Waziristan," he said when asked about the confirmation of the report.

Radio Tehran said that US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's trip to Pakistan on Thursday had been made in connection with bin Laden's capture.

Pakistani officials said that Rumsfeld had not visited Pakistan.

al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has been accused of masterminding the Sept.11 attacks on American landmarks in New York and Washington in 2001.

US denies arrest of Osama Bin Laden

The United States Saturday denied news reports that Osama Bin Laden had been captured "for a long time," local media quoted a US official as saying.

Iran's state radio reported Saturday that Osama bin Laden had been captured in a tribal region in Pakistan.

Britain's Sunday Express weekly reported that bin Laden is being surrounded by US and British special forces in the rugged Pakistani mountains along the Afghan border.

The newspaper said the world most wanted man was within a 16 km by 16 km area, being monitored by a US spy satellite.

"As far as the reports of Osama bin Laden's location, I don't take much credence in them because if we knew where he was in Afghanistan, we would go get him and if the Pakistanis knew where he was in Pakistan they would go get him," US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Hilferty said.

"We continue to have rumors over the past two years," he told a news briefing in Kabul, when asked about speculation that bin Laden had been spotted.

Meanwhile, Pakistani officials also denied rumors that bin Laden had been captured in mountains north of the Pakistani city of Quetta.

"That area is in Pakistan but there is nothing there, life is absolutely normal -- you can go and see," said Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan. "There is no operation being conducted there and there are no foreign troops there."
 
(Xinhua News Agency February 28, 2004)